


I Trust You

by A Small World (Datawolf39)



Series: Little Zuko [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Affection, Age Regression/De-Aging, Fluff, Friendship, Hugs, Non-Sexual Age Play, Sokka cares, Sokka is so done with Zuko's lack of experience with affection, Trust, big brother sokka, boys being soft, he is going to help fix that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:14:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26462488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Datawolf39/pseuds/A%20Small%20World
Summary: Sokka and Zuko spend some time together.
Relationships: Sokka & Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Little Zuko [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1921459
Comments: 21
Kudos: 160





	I Trust You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hateallexceptyou](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hateallexceptyou/gifts).



> A gift because it was asked for, and I was inspired.

Sokka knew that something was off about Zuko, his movements were more sluggish than normal, and while he knew that part of it was due to the wound on his chest, which he knew still pained Zuko no matter how hard the idiot tried to hide that fact, that certainly wasn’t the whole story. He’d just have to wait for Zuko to come clean though, because if there was one thing that he had learned about him, it was that Zuko wouldn’t confide in anyone until he really didn’t have a choice in the matter.

“Come on Jerkbender, you can do better than that,” Sokka taunted as he circled Zuko with the practice sword.

“You shouldn’t play with fire,” Zuko sneered as he went on the offensive.

Sokka laughs as he blocks the slash. Under his tutelage Zuko had developed a real sense of humor, and that might be the crowning achievement of his life.

Zuko growled.

Sokka, feeling a bit reckless, met the attack with his own. The force seemed to put Zuko off-balance, but instead of retreating to regain his equilibrium, he stumbled, and fell to his knees.

Immediately, Sokka tossed aside the practice sword, and went over to him. “Zuko, are you okay?” he asked fearing that they had reopened his wound.

“I’m fine,” Zuko sighed. “I just got dizzy for a second.”

Sokka bent down next to him, and pressed a hand to his forehead, frowning when he felt how hot it was. “I think you have a fever,” he said.

“Firebenders run hot,” Zuko replied as he shrugged away from the touch.

“Not that hot,” Sokka argued.

Zuko stood up, using the practice sword as a crutch.

“I’ll get Katara,” Sokka decided.

Zuko’s hand grabbed his arm. “Please…”

“Zuko, I don’t know what you and my sister are fighting about, but she won’t care about that since you’re sick.”

Zuko blushed, “We didn’t fight.”

“That’s not what really matters right now.”

“I’m okay, I just need to rest.”

Sokka sighed. “Okay,” he agreed against his better judgement, “but if you get any worse, I’m going to go get her.”

Zuko nodded knowing that was the best he was going to get.

“Come on, let's go to your room.”

Zuko blinked slowly. “Why?”

“So you can rest,” Sokka said in the voice one used when communicating something that should be obvious.

“But I thought you wanted to-”

Sokka rolled his eyes. “Zuko, you’re sick. I wouldn’t be a very good friend if I let you get sicker just because we had plans today. We can spar next time you have a free day, and for today we can just hang out in your room.”

Zuko looked dumbstruck by his words, and Sokka was once again reminded that Zuko was still pretty new to the concepts of friendship, and common decency. “Come on,” he said again.

Zuko nodded.

Soon enough, they were crossing the threshold of Zuko's room, and once he had a door between the rest of the world and himself, all of his energy seemed to vanish. 

“Zuko!” Sokka exclaimed as Zuko fell to the floor. 

“Ow,” Zuko murmured. 

“Here, let me help,” Sokka said as Zuko tried to stand up again. 

With his help, Zuko managed to get into bed.

“Sorry,” he sighed.

“I’d hit you for being an idiot, but you’re sick.”

“Why does half of our group always want to hit people?”

“It’s part of our charm,” Sokka says with a huge grin.

The smile faded when he noticed a few scratches, on Zuko’s hand, and a mark on his upper arm that looked like it was going to bruise. “Did these happen when you fell?” he asked.

Zuko seemed just as surprised as he was to see that he had a few mild injuries.

“Let me have a look.”

“Huh?”

Sokka rolled his eyes. “I can’t heal like Katara, obviously, but I do know how to treat minor injuries.”

“Oh.”

Sokka refrained from rolling his eyes again. He grabbed Zuko’s hand, and looked at the scratches. They weren’t deep, but they still should be cleaned just in case. The mark on his shoulder was worse, and he saw Zuko wince as he gently prodded it, it was definitely going to bruise.

Once he had retrieved some water, he began to clean the scratches.

“Why are you doing this?”

Soka had several answers he could give, with anyone else he would have made a joke, but this was Zuko, and right now, his friend needed an honest answer.

“Because I can, and because you let me do it.”

Zuko froze, and Sokka hurried to explain himself further. “When I found out Katara was a bender, I was jealous of her, and sometimes I still feel that way, because you all have abilities that I don’t, but then I remember something my dad said to me when I was little.” Sokka, finished with his task, set aside the cloth, and sat on the bed, with his back to Zuko, and his gaze on the ceiling. “He told me that there would be a lot of things in life that I couldn’t do, and it would be silly to dwell on them, especially when there were things that only I could do. I might not be able to bend, but I can still fight. I don’t have Katara’s powers, but I can still treat minor injuries. You don’t like to have others help you, but you let me be one of those that you trust enough to help you.”

Sokka jumped as Zuko wrapped him in a sloppy hug. “Mom used to say that when I asked why she kissed my scratches,” Zuko murmured.

Sokka turned a little, and just as he was about to wrap his arms around Zuko, something seemed to change, and Zuko pulled back in a hurry. “S-sorry,” he stuttered.

“For what?”

“I shouldn’t have, I mean I know-” Zuko looked down at his lap. 

“Zuko, it’s okay to hug people.” Sokka wanted to cry, because it was really sad that he had to tell him that. “It’s okay to hug me.”

“But I’m…I’m me _.”_

“Of course you’re you, who else would you be?”

“But I’m _me_ ,” he said again, this time he was almost shouting, and Sokka could see that he was going to break a second before it happened.

Sokka had never seen Zuko cry before, but he had the feeling that Zuko was quite practiced in crying silently given his upbringing. He wished he was wrong, because watching a friend choke back sobs, with his eyes closed so tightly it must be painful, was a terrible thing to experience.

“Come here,” he said softly, tugging Zuko back into a hug. 

Zuko was stiff in his hold, but Sokka wouldn’t release him unless Zuko pulled back. Slowly, as though he was making sure that Sokka wasn’t just playing a trick on him, Zuko hugged him back. Despite the hesitation he displayed, once Zuko had committed to the hug, he held on with a ferocity that surprised Sokka. Something was not right here, sure Zuko was sick, but that couldn’t be all there was to it, and it was worrying Sokka.

“What’s going on Zuko?” Sokka asked gently.

Zuko pulled back, and curled in on himself. “Sometimes…”

Sokka stayed quiet.

Zuko swallowed. “Sometimes I feel… small. There is so much happening, and it's all so big, and when I feel safe,” golden eyes flick up to meet his gaze for a second before looking away, “when I feel safe, I kinda go back to being that little kid that thinks his world will stay whole.”

“Are you feeling that way now?”

Zuko nodded. “I’m trying not to, but-”

“Zuko, I’m your friend, and you are mine. In fact I would say after all we’ve been through we are practically family, and you feeling safe with me is something that makes me really happy, and if you need to be small for a while, that’s okay too, because I have it on good authority that I’m a pretty good big brother.”

Zuko looked at Sokka, his expression caught somewhere between wonder, and fear. “You mean that? It’s not a joke?”

“I know I’m the goofy joke guy, but you know I wouldn’t treat something this important as a joke right?”

Zuko looked at him, eyes searching for some proof that he was being honest, and he must have found it, because, a smile so innocent that it wouldn’t look out of place on an actual toddler, came over his face as he said “Big brother.” 

It was at that moment that Sokka knew he would do anything that Zuko asked him to if he asked in that cute voice. “Yup that’s me,” he said proudly, reaching over to ruffle Zuko’s hair.

“Grrah,” Zuko growled, taking a snap at Sokka’s hand.

Sokka smiled, and then pulled a face of faux fear. “What a scary tigerdillo, someone save me,” he cried dramatically.

Zuko giggled. “I Zuko, not a tigerdillo.”

“Are you sure? You sounded like a tigerdillo.”

Zuko nodded. “Just a Zuko.”

“Well just Zuko, what should we do now?”

Zuko’s eyes searched the room, until they landed on the desk.

“If you suggest paperwork, I will cry.”

Zuko shook his head. “Paperwork sucks.”

Sokka laughs at the disgust in his voice. When he sobered up, Zuko had returned to the bed with a book. “What’s this?”

“A book,” Zuko says.

Sokka can’t even be mad, because he walked right into that one. “Yes it is. What is the book about?”

“It has swords, and some fun jokes,” he says climbing into bed. 

“Sounds like a good story.”

“Mmhmm,” Zuko says snuggling under his cover. “Got it for you. “

“Thanks,” Sokka said. 

When Sokka looked at his friend, he could see that Zuko was holding on to something. “What’s that?” he asked.

Zuko blushes a little, but holds up the plush. “This is Tutu, Aang gave her to me.”

Sokka shook the plush’s webbed foot. “Nice to meet you, Tutu.”

Zuko smiled at him. “Tutu says hi.”

“She’s sweet.”

“The nicest. She makes it easier to sleep.”

“Hmm, that’s good since you look ready for a nap.”

“Will you stay? I mean, it would be boring cause I’ll be sleep, but-”

“Of course I’ll stay.” Sokka says as he lays down beside Zuko. “I might read for a bit, and then have a nap myself.”

The room falls quiet, aside from the turning of the pages as Sokka reads through the first chapter of the book. His eyes flick to Zuko every now and then, and he finds him in the same position each time, laying on his side, with his back facing him. When he gets to the end of the chapter, he sets the book aside, and closes his eyes.

“Sokka?” 

Sokka looks at him. “Did I wake you?”

Zuko shakes his head. “I just wanted to say thanks.”

Sokka smiled, “You're welcome.”

Zuko rolls over, and inches closer to Sokka.

Sokka scoots closer, and rearranges their position until they are comfortably cuddled in the center of the bed, with Tutu held between them. “Comfy?”

Zuko nods, and closes his eyes.

Sokka smiled. He knew that all of this should be weird for him, it wasn’t everyday your friend told you that sometimes, if he felt safe enough, he regressed to the mental space of a little kid after all, but it just wasn’t weird. It was as natural as rain, as natural breathing, and Sokka felt incredibly happy that Zuko trusted him with this vulnerable side of himself. 

As he lay there Sokka started to think of all the things that he wanted to give Zuko. Top of the list was hugs. He would give him so many hugs that Zuko would never again think such affection would be unwanted. 

As he compiled his list, he realized that the others would want to add their own things to it once they were truly aware of how starved for affection Zuko was, and that was the moment that he realized that Zuko was going to be spoiled. He could see it all so clearly. Zuko, happy and small, free of responsibility, and just enjoying an abundance of affection, and he honestly couldn’t wait for that image to become reality.

**Author's Note:**

> For added fluff, this story is titled Lil Zuzu on my word doc.  
> Is it crazy that I myself am being consumed by the fluff of my own creation?


End file.
